Stephen F Austin to Wily Martin, 05-30-1831 [1833]

Summary: Many alarming rumors in Mexico concerning intention of Texans to revolt. He has dissipated most of the uneasiness. Customhouses must be reestablished and Austin has pledged people to support the collector. Has changed attitude toward slavery. Texas must be a slave country. Hopes for State organization with consent of Coahuila.

On my arrival here, things were rather a bad aspect, but they have
totally changed for the better. It was believed that Texas had
declared independence, and that John Austin was organizing an army
to fight the Mexicans. I am told there is also some excitement in
Mexico, and that the State got all excited, and have sent
commissioners to Texas.

The Com. Gen'l Filisola, is a blunt, honest, candid and prompt
soldier. He has been over thirty years in service; has been Com.
Gen'l. at various times, with important powers entrusted to him,—
and what is rather uncommon, he has not made a fortune. His
principles are liberal and republican, and he wishes that the practice of
all the authorities should conform with the true spirit of the
Constitution and the laws. Says that there is a great want of moral
honesty, and great abuses in the revenue. He is the friend of the
farming and agricultural interests—a decided enemy of smugglers
and lawyers, for he thinks they demoralize the community by placing
temptations before weak or avaricious persons etc. He will be
unpopular with all who wish to make money by evading the law. He
thinks well of the idea of making a State of Texas, and has a good
opinion of the Colonists in general, but believes they have more
enemies amongst themselves than any where else. The reason he
thinks so is, that he says a quiet and prudent course is the best for
them and a rigid adherence to all the laws, so long as they are in
force, etc. They are gaining yearly, and the republican principle[s]
they have been accustomed to, are also gaining all over the nation,
so that a little patience will place all right without any difficulty etc.

He has orders to reestablish the custom house and garrisons, and
is compelled to do so. The former will be done, the latter, probably
not until fall; and I am of opinion not to the extent then that was
contemplated a month ago.

Geo. Fisher goes back as collector. I assure you that he is now a
new man, it is the interest of the country to sustain him, and I request
my friend, that you will unite in support of what I recommended on
this, and all other matters in my letter to the Ayuntamientos.

The quantity of tobacco that has been smuggled from the ports of
Texas, has made a great noise all over the nation, and the violation
of the custom house laws in Texas, are made a pretext for similar
violations elsewhere. The enemies of Santa Anna are making a
great handle of these Texas matters, to injure him and destroy his
popularity. They say he has lost Texas, and is the cause of the
destruction of the public property there, the ruin of the forts, and the
insults which it is reported the Mexicans have received there, etc.;
and that he is now unwilling or unable or afraid to punish such acts
of outrage, etc. Much is said by his enemies on the subject.

I am told that Santa Anna and his friends are very much enraged
at the colonists, and blames them for the Anahuac expedition; says
they had some cause to complain, but they went to work in so headlong
and passionate a manner to get redress, that they placed
themselves in a worse situation than they were before, because they put
weapons in the hands of their enemies, and injured and mortified
their friends.

It is also reported that the alcalde and the ayuntamientos of Austin
treat the State authorities with contempt, and do not even
acknowledge the receipt of the official correspondence, and never pretend to
answer it, or comply with the laws. Amongst so many rumors and
lies, it is not to be expected that I should escape. It is reported that
I was the author of the Anahuac expedition, and of all John Austin's
acts. The Santa Anna party are irritated at that expedition for
they say it put the current in motion and was the cause of all that
passed. I am told I shall be roughly received by Santa Anna at
first. This I do not believe, for nothing could be more unjust than
to accuse me of being the author of that expedition. However, all
this can be corrected and placed on its true basis by a statement of
facts; for I believe the irritation has proceeded more from the handle
or pretext it gives the enemies of Santa Anna to abuse him, than
from a belief that there was no cause for complaint.

You could not have a correct idea of how matters stood, unless
you were informed of all these reports and sayings, and for this
reason I have mentioned them.

The general congress has adjourned and probably will not meet
again until January next, so that my trip to Mexico was rendered
measurably useless, and having been very much debilitated by a
dysentery, or Cholarina, that is prevailing here, I had concluded at
one time to postpone my trip for the present and I forwarded the
memorial to the President through the commandant General by mail,
so as to remove the bad impressions that existed in Mexico. I have
this day heard of a vessel that is unexpectedly to be sent to Vera
Cruz, the schooner Comet, and I shall embark on board of her and
take the stage from Vera Cruz to Mexico. I am illy calculated at
this time to stand the trip by land, and I believe that it would lay
me up in this hot, dry country perhaps for the whole summer.

Nothing definite can be done about the State question, until
Congress meets in January, unless there should be a called session, and
they are always convened for special objects, and by the constitution
nothing can be done in them but the special objects for which they
are convened. So that all I can do is to talk with the President and
Ministers and correct lies and false reports etc., and pave the way.
I think I shall return in August, but if it appears to be necessary for
me to remain until January, I shall do so.

The basis of my policy, so far as I had any thing to do with Texas
matters, up to last July the time when I returned and found all in
confusion, was this—never to put the interests of the settlers at
hazard, and to rely more upon the regular and natural progress of
things for remedies, than upon efforts to force them prematurely.

The settlers have earned what they have got too hard, and by too
many years of hard labor and privation, to jeopardize all hastily—a
war with the nation will be ruinous to them, for they will be
destroyed and overwhelmed, eaten up by those who come from abroad
to aid them in fighting their battles. They have more to dread from
such friends, and from Indians, than from the whole Mexican nation.

Had I been an ambitious military leader, the reverse of this would
have been my policy, and I would have aroused and led on the
settlers, and inflamed them into a war and then made use of them
(as all military leaders do of the people) to build up my own fame
as a chieftain, success would have deceived the most of them and
made me a great man, nominally. For I think that true greatness
consists in doing the most good, and not in acquiring the most fame-
when I entered Texas I laid it down as a fixed rule of action, to
conquer that country with the axe, the plough and the hoe. Silently
and gradually my ambition was to benefit all, and make use of none
as mere instruments to build up myself and a few chosen band of
leaders. Every military leader must of necessity be surrounded by
a set of leeches who must be kept fat, and whose ambition must be
gratified, and whims satisfied. All this is done by using the people
as tools, or rather as food to glut upon.

Also, I have pursued concilliation as a system; both in the colony
and out of it. I did so because a small spark kindles a great flame,
and such flames always injure the farmers and working classes.
Besides this, a child is easier destroyed in a conflict than a full
grown man. My policy has displeased the ardent spirits in my
colony, but I still think it was the correct one; and I see no necessity
for abandoning it and adopting the reverse as a basis. Though, if
it is abandoned, I shall go into the opposite extreme, and adhere to
it as fully, and as obstinately, as I have to the system of concilliation,
and perhaps much more so than some of those who are easily excited,
and talk much about fighting.

Upon the whole, I think we have all got along wonderfully well,
considering all things; and I have the fullest confidence in the most
favorable results.

I have been adverse to the principle of slavery in Texas. I have
now, and for the last six months, changed my views of that matter;
though my ideas are the same as to the abstract principle. Texas
must he a slave country. Circumstances and unavoidable
necessity compels it. It is the wish of the people there, and it is my duty
to do all I can, prudently, in favor of it. I will do so.